Why set the film in the 1980s? Could it have taken place today?
Glass: One of the main reasons for putting it in the past was wanting it to be pre-internet or pre–social media. What I liked about doing it before everyone became so connected is that it heightens the fact that both Lou and Jackie are misfits and alone. They’re both from different small towns, very isolated, and haven’t found their people because they’re not physically around them. So when the two cross paths, there’s recognition there.
The year 1989 was right before anabolic steroids became illegal, so in the film there’s a naivete to how they’re being handled. And this excess of the ’80s and more, bigger just before the ’90s, when everyone becomes more nihilistic—I thought Jackie’s the ’80s and Lou’s the ’90s, a love story between a romantic and a cynic.
Katy, you’re an accomplished martial artist, and one of the leads of True Detective: Night Country, Kali Reis, is a former pro boxer. Is there something about this moment that’s particularly primed for depictions of complex women whose physical strength is also foregrounded?
O’Brian: Hollywood has made a big push to be more supportive of female writers and directors. These aren’t things that are weird to us—a lot of women box, go to the gym, work out.
Glass: The way that both Katy and Kristen appear in this film shouldn’t be radical. There are many women who look like both these characters. How people are responding to seeing them as main characters versus how unextraordinary it is in real life—the fact that’s such a stark contrast just highlights the homogeneity that, as everyone’s well aware, has been present in films for a long time.
The film also has a real playfulness and sexiness in its depiction of desire, even amid all the menace and violence.
Glass: There’s a lot of queer films in particular, and a certain type of tasteful period lesbian film, where all the looking is done very secretly and with longing in a sense of forbiddenness. So I enjoyed that here they’re both more horny and blatant. When Lou sees Jackie across the gym, if I’m referencing anything there, it’s the bit in The Mask where Jim Carrey sees Cameron Diaz across the bank. It was fun to lean into the silliness.
